The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-23
QUEER CHARACTERS IN WALL
STREET
Some of Them Which Have Achieved
Notoriety.

]
/ Notoriety.
/ INV YORK, Oct 22-- New York is
| full of queer characters, and Wall
street is q magnet that attracts many.
Taking few of them at random there IS
Asbury Harpending, of the Consolidated
Exchange. He is a Kentuckian by birth,
! about 45 years of age, has piercing black
eyes, full long black beard, is of slender
! build and over six feet in height. He be
came notorious in San Francisco when only
! 20 years Of age. 1t was during the civil
war. He was full of boyish enthusiasm for
the Confederacy, and was arrested in San
! Francisco on a charge of plotting to cap
! ture, with the aid of a number of Others,
| the treasure ships leaving that port
for Panama, and then escape TO Eng
land and use the proceeds for the
| furtherance of the Southern cause. The
| authorities arrested him as the chief con-
spirator in this piratical enterprise, and he
was convicted and imprisoned; subsequent
| ly, however, being pardoned. He then EN-
! barked in real estate ventures with the IA
nous Ralston, of San Francisco, who
| drowned himself on the downfall of the
| Bank of California. Then Halpending
| built block of buildings having frontage
of 800 feet on Market street, San Francisco.
! They took fire and he watched the fire with
| thought of the ample insurance on the prop
erty His agent, it proved, however, had
neglected to insure it, and a fortune went
up i'll the smoke and flames, burnt Offering
to the speculative gods. He came to New
! York eight years ago, plunged into
mining enterprises, promoted the develop
ment of some South American mines, got
in low in the last mining boom and was
very successful, especially in the ComstOck
! shares. For instance, lac held considerable
| Consolidated Virginia, for which he paid
about 81, and which he sold at between $40
and $50, making, it is understood, nearly
800, 900 He has had a career full OF
strange vicissitudes, has made and lost sew
eral fortunes, and, strange as it may sound,
has landed on his feet and is now worth
| 81 10000 or more He is a man of in
domitable resolution, full of fight, undaunt-
| ed under all circumstances, a stormy petrol
| of speculation who has rested at last on a
! sun-lit peak.
He has speculated in railroad stocks, min
ing shares or grain all his life, and is one of
million who has not been permanently
overcome by the fatal undertow which
| threatens big and little on the speculative
seas. He has had the cramp number of
| times, but his fiery Southern blood has
warmed him up TO successful struggle
| against the adverse current. Walking up
and down in a brokers' office and breathing
out slaughter against some offender who
seemed slow in executing an order he often
presented a queer spectacle. Sometimes
| Chicago brokers were rather slow in report
ing transaction, and then the would be
buccaneer of the Golden Horn would break
into threats suggestive of Col Bowie. an
| knife 'em, the d Scoundres. I'll knife
| 'emn
Henry Smith the former millionaire and
once big operator in stocks, but now devo-
tee of free lunch counters, may be put
down as one of the queer Wall street char
acters. He fought Jay Gould in number
| less speculations. Once he said: 'I'll make
jay Gould earn his living with hand Or
gan and monkey
The remark was repeated to Mr.. Gould.
| He smiled grimly and said nothing. When
| Henry Smith failed for $1,000 900, Mr.
Could remarked: HE might now try the
hand organ HIMSELF Smith had been en-
gagged with Addison Cammack and Baron
| Woerishoffer in bear campaign, but his
two associates had found it prudent to
cover their short sales. Smith Over-stayed
his market, as most operators do sooner or
| later, and was crushed by the triumphal
car of the bulls. Jay Gould
was the driver, and he contemplated
the mangled remains of Hen
Smith with philosophical serenity. Smith
had few friends and no one sympathized
|
| failure was celebrated by the manager OF
one large house with an abundance of cigars
| for everybody in the establishment. He is
| short and slight small i'll body and small in
mind, purse-proud and snobbish in the days
when he was worth 5000. 900 or 5000, 0J0
! and hated even then. To-day he wanders
| like a forlorn ghost in the region OF Wall
! street, looked upon with contempt by those
! who know that he pulled down poor w llliam
Heath his broker, and that he has IA soul of
| about the dimensions of a pin head.
| William Heath may be remembered by
some He was Hen" Smiths broker in his
| last great SPECULATION, and was sent to Lud-
| low street Jail for some alleged Irregular
ties growing out of his financial transac-
lions, and which led to civil suits. He died
in Ludlow street Jail n pauper while his rich
wife was leading a gay life in Paris, q
woman who deliberately left her husband
to die poor and comparatively trieudless. A
| more disgusting exhibition of fashionable
| heartlessness has seldom been presented in
real life. Heath was a man OF ability, Il
| gentleman i'll manner and education. and
] Tor years was very successful.
! John Tobin once President of the Hudson
| River railroad, and now about 20 Years of
age, is tall, stoop- sharp featured
and has keen, rat-Iike eyes. He was once
| worth j., 900, 900, hut is now said to be spec
| ulating in the bucket shops. He was in the
heyday of his fortune at the beginning of
the civil war and before the Hudson River
road was merged with the New York Cen
trail 1t was a time OF wild speculations in
gold and stocks and everything else. The
gambling mania broke out everywhere
Tobin, it is said, dropped a good deal of
money with John MorTissey, the keeper of
gambling resorts mere and in Saratoga
One night, it is said, Tobin lost large sum
and gave MorrisSey a check but stopped it
the next day. MorrIssey complained to old
Com. Vanderbilt, who, it is said. turned
against Tobin on this account and ulti-
mately had him ousted as President of the
Hudson River road. Here is a dramatic
transition. A man worth $1,000 900 now
making 80 turns in the bucket shops. 1t is
the old story of unsuccessful speculations
Bank Presidents say that % per cent of
the men who go into business sooner or
! later fail IL this is true of legitimate in
duStry how much chance can the average
! Spectator havel
Another notable figure of by-gone days
who still stalks like ghost TO slow music
through Wall street is John Pondir famous
as the homeliest man in that region and
proud of the fact. When ms phenomenal
| fog-horn mouth, greenisll-gray eyes, NANCY
| looking brick-coored side whisllers aston
ishing nose, hands and feet and skin OF a
pale riIinoceros color, and about as rough as
"A water hogs; when, IN short. his match
less physical ugliness is made tie subje t of